Life at Best

Chapter Eighteen

Sorry this wasn't posted yesterday, but I was driving 6 hours home from Maryland yesterday and by the time I got home I didn't do much else... this is also my least favorite of any of the more recent chapters, I feel like I knew what I wanted to happen, but I had to force it out... but enjoy!

Chapter Eighteen

Three race weekends left. Five weeks until the wedding. While the race season was winding down, the wedding time was just starting to ramp up. Every detail was planned, all the vendors had been booked and paid, everyone had dresses and tuxes. Now they just had to wait until the week before to finalize everything and throw all their hard work together before the big day.

Brynne, Martin, Julie and Junior arrived in Texas early Thursday morning... everyone else wasn't due until the afternoon or evening, and the first on track activities weren't until the first practice tomorrow afternoon and qualifying a couple hours after that. Then the fun would begin.

This weekend Martin and Brynne had planned Julie and Junior's bachelor and bachelorette parties. Being that they traveled every weekend it was hard to find a time to plan it where they weren't on the road, so they decided to pick a track a couple weeks before the wedding and throw the parties then – most of their friends were part of the NASCAR circuit and for the ones that weren't, they were bringing them out to Texas to partake in the festivities.

Friday night was their chosen night because the only on track activity they had on Saturday was final practice late afternoon, so they could sleep off their massive hangovers in the morning and be semi-coherent in time to drive their race cars.

Martin's plan was simple and didn't even involve leaving the track – they were going to hit up the infield and find themselves some good, old fashioned tailgating fun with the fans who were camping there. Generally, that involved lots of alcohol, games (some good and some made up and really dumb) and lots of laughs. If they didn't find anything good happening in the infield then they could take their party on the road, but he doubted they couldn't find someone having a good time in the infield who wouldn't want to invite a bunch of NASCAR drivers celebrating one driver's last hurrah before he went off and got married.

Brynne on the other hand, had rented a party bus to pick her, Julie and all the other ladies up at the track and to take them in to the city to get up to no good in Fort Worth. Her plan was to hit up some bars, maybe find a club once they had been drinking and had some liquid courage in their veins and get their dance on! She had also had a crown and sash made for Julie to wear proclaiming she was the bachelorette, and one for her to wear as the maid of honor. And probably the thing she was looking the most forward to, was the bachelorette scavenger hunt. She had done them before at a couple other girl's bachelorette party and they were hilarious to watch and to play. All in all, she hoped it would lead to Julie having a great time on her last "girls' night out" before the wedding.

*

Brynne had her bag of goodies packed, the cooler full of 'girlie' drinks, a box of bottles of wine, some snacks and the scavenger hunt sheets packed in her bag. She had gotten dressed – a pair of leggings, shirt dress, heels and cute earrings – and was getting ready to leave the coach when Martin walked on.

"I was hoping to catch you before you left."

She smiled up at him, "What's up?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to do this." He put his hands on her waist and pulled her body to his, connecting their lips in a passionate embrace.

"Mmm," Brynne hummed, "I like that."

"Me too. There will be more of that later."

"You promise?"

Martin held up his hands, "Scout's honor."

"Try not to drink too much tonight, okay?"

He laughed, "I probably won't drink much, I want to be coherent enough to make sure I can corral all the guys back so I don't lose any of them."

Brynne laughed too, "Yes please don't lose anyone, I don't need any angry wives or girlfriends on my hands."

"You come back in one piece too, okay?"

"Oh I will, we're just going to go to a couple bars and go dance, everyone will get back safely..."

"You're the only one I care about."

She kissed him one more time, "Okay sir, time for me to go now, the party bus will be here soon and I have to go round everyone up."

"Okay, I love you."

Brynne grinned, "I love you, too."

*

All of the guys cooked some burgers and hot dogs on the grill and downed some beers in the coach lot once the girls left before they decided to venture off in to the infield looking for a party. They knew their fans and knew they should be able to find a good time somewhere, and generally the fans were more than ecstatic to get a chance to hang out with some of their favorite drivers.

Normally they would take golf carts to the infield, but tonight knowing they would be drinking no one wanted to take the chance of drinking too much and having to figure out how to get the golf carts back to the coach lot, so instead they were walking, dragging coolers filled with beer behind them. They could only imagine what they looked like and were glad that their owners weren't around to see the men they paid millions to drive race cars around the track at 200mph heading out on a race weekend to party with the fans and lots of beer.

Junior trailed towards the back of the group and Martin hung back to walk with him, clapping him on the shoulder as they walked, "So this is it buddy, the last wild night before you get hitched... how do you feel?"

"Well I'd feel better with a ballcap on my head instead of this damn cowboy hat and to not be dragging this damn thing around with me..." Martin snickered, the guys had thought it would be hilarious to make Junior wear a cowboy hat instead of his signature ballcap tonight – they were in Texas after all, and had attached a ten pound cannonball to his ankle, so he was literally dragging his one leg behind him. "And you act as if we still don't drink and hang out every weekend or during the week... this may end anything super 'wild', but since the girls came in to our lives, we haven't really been doing anything wild."

"Things really did change when they came around," Martin said thoughtfully, "Okay enough about that for tonight, they're out having fun and Brynne is keeping an eye on Julie to make sure she doesn't get too crazy herself, but let's have some fun."

Junior clapped Martin on the back, "Let's." He picked up the pace (as much as he could with a literal ten pound weight attached to his ankle) and grabbed a beer out of the cooler before turning around to all the guys and grinning, "Who's ready to have some fun?"

They all broke out in a roar and Martin grinned, ready to go have fun with his bachelor best friend.

*

"Now ladies, welcome to 'Julie's Last Stand Before the Band'... the only rules for tonight are let's all stay together, no puking and have fun!" All the ladies cheered and clinked glasses together as they drank their drinks in the party bus, on their way to their first destination. Brynne pulled the scavenger hunt cards out and started handing them out to everyone. The card contained different 'challenges' for the women to complete. "To make this night fun and competitive, I put together a little scavenger hunt – Julie is required to do it, but everyone else can do it too, for fun. In the event of the challenge requiring an item, you have to have possession of that item, otherwise no picture, no proof."

"Brynne this is amazing!" Delana Harvick laughed, "Use a cheesy pick up line on a stranger, get a stranger's phone number, get a free drink from the bartender -"

"That one will be a breeze for me!" Samantha Busch joked, "De I want to see you get a piggyback ride from a stranger – I'll make sure I'm recording it for Kevin! Or ask a guy to marry you!"

"Leave the proposing to me," Tara said, putting her arm around Brynne and pulling her old friend to her side. Brynne had been so excited when she had called Tara up in Boston and told her about Julie's bachelorette party and Tara had immediately told Brynne she would be flying to Texas to attend. Besides Martin, Julie was the only one of this new set of 'friends' that Tara had ever met, so Brynne had been so excited to show Tara this part of her life. "Who's got the best voice? Maybe they should sing to a stranger..."

"I'm not sure this is the best group to ask that question, you've never been around when we've done karaoke," Julie looked at Tara and cringed, "You haven't missed anything, trust me."

"So are we planning on getting in some trouble tonight?" Delana asked.

"No, no trouble," Brynne said quickly, "I told the guys we would not get in any trouble and I don't plan on breaking that promise..."

"Well you're the one that put a selfie with a cop in handcuffs on the scavenger hunt, so we either have to convince a cop to put us in handcuffs and take a selfie, or we have to get in trouble..."

"I'll take my chances with begging a cop for a selfie," Brynne laughed, "Because that is the last phone call I want to make tonight."

"Getting a condom from a guy should be fairly simple, most guys are egotistical enough to think that anytime they go to the bar they'll bring a girl home with them, so they generally have a couple condoms on them... I'm sure we could talk them out of a condom or two," Paige Keselowski piped up.

Brynne wanted to giggle. She expected Delana and Julie to be down for the scavenger hunt, but it was just so weird to her when the other ladies were just as into it as they were, like she really wasn't expecting it. It was definitely a nice surprise. Especially since this was really the first time she had really interacted with a couple of them, sure she had seen them in passing at the track or in the coach lot or at one of the get togethers at someone's coach at the track, but this was the first time she had spent considerable time with them, so she wasn't expecting them to be as chill and cool as they seemed to be.

"My favorite though has got to be getting a lap dance from a stranger and to have a guy serenade you... those will be fun to watch," Julie grinned.

"You know I've never seen this at a bachelorette party before but I think it's going to be tons of fun to take part in!"

"Thanks De, it was quite fun to put together too. It'll be even better watching everyone trying to do them all..." It was probably Brynne's favorite game she had ever played at a bachelorette party before, so she just knew she needed to make her own spin on it for tonight. "Most of these should be a breeze for you ladies, I look forward to see you working your magic tonight!"

She intended to take lots of pictures and videos to remember this night forever, and maybe she would have to make a slideshow to show at the wedding during her speech.

"To Julie and Junior!"

Everyone held their drinks up and yelled, "To Julie and Junior!"

*

The guys wandered through the infield saying hey to as many fans as they could, having beers, taking some pictures and just generally hanging out (the only thing they asked was they weren't really up to signing autographs when they were supposed to be out and having fun), but mostly everyone was happy just to hang out and drink beers with them. Some of the tailgating and camping setups some of the fans had in the infield were ridiculous in a good way. It was obvious that in addition to loving racing, NASCAR fans loved to have fun also.

They didn't stay at one place for too long, just flitting from campsite to campsite until they found quite possibly the craziest group of fans some of them had ever encountered. They didn't compare to Talladega infield fans, but still they were crazy. Amongst the tents and campers that this group of friends had set up in their adjoining campsites they had corn hole, Kan-Jam, a couple tables with beer pong cups set up and a keg that they were currently doing keg stands on.

"Yo Junior you gonna do a keg stand?"

"If I do one, all ya'll have got to do one too! I'm not going to be the only one doing dumb shit tonight."

Martin sat back with his phone out and recorded all of his stupid friends as they did keg stands like they were twenty years old again. It was hilarious to watch Josh and TJ holding Junior's legs up and Kevin standing to the side holding the cannonball attached to Junior's ankle. Tonight he was getting plenty of content for his and Brynne's joint slideshow they were planning on putting together to show off at the wedding during their speeches and these idiots were just supplying all the entertainment.

He was happy he could use the excuse of having to stay sober enough to get all of their asses back to the coach lot and in a cab back to the hotel for those not staying in the coach lot to get him out of doing all the dumb stuff the other guys had in mind for the night. Instead he stood back with a camera and a beer and watched his friends act like fools, laughing heartedly.

Keg stands turned in to beer pong – NASCAR drivers vs. fans... and you could tell their fans did this a hell of a lot more than they did, because they were all getting annihilated... in more ways than one. Even Junior – who was the NASCAR beer pong champion – couldn't manage to squeak out even one win against the fans they were playing against. And it was resulting in some funny as hell moments and a lot of alcohol.

But Martin's favorite moment of the night had to of been when they rolled up (and by rolled he meant most of them stumbled) to one group of fan's camping 'compound' simply because the game they were playing looked hilarious.

"Hey, can we play?"

They looked up and their eyes about bulged out of their heads when they saw Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Martin Truex, Kevin Harvick, The Busch Brothers and various other NASCAR drivers standing there asking them to play with them.

"Uh, of course."

"What the hell is it that ya'll are playing there? It looks... different."

"It's called Flickin' Chicken... it's a little like Bocce. You throw this disc out and then toss your chicken trying to get it closest to the disc. Name's Ross by the way."

"Nice to meet you Ross, I'm –"

Ross chuckled and looked at his friends, "Don't worry we know who you guys are. What are ya'll doing out here in the infield? You want a beer?"

"We'd love a beer! And it seems as if this bachelor is going to be a bachelor no more here soon, so we're celebrating the end of his 'wild side'."

"Well congratulations dude, come on in here and play with us."

They all walked into the camp site and listened as Ross and his friends explained Flickin' Chicken to them and the rules... Martin stood back and took pictures and happened to sneak in a quick video to Brynne of Junior tossing a rubber chicken around. He couldn't help but laugh, wanting to know her reaction.

In the end they had stayed and hung out with Ross and his buddies until almost two in the morning, they had been a pretty cool group of guys. Martin had brought some pit passes with him, just in case and happily gave them to Ross and his friends who were ecstatic over the fact they would get to go in the pits the rest of the weekend. It was the least he could do for the cool dudes they got to hang out with for the majority of the night. But now it was time to wrangle up the crew and safely get them all tucked in to bed so they could sleep off all the alcohol they had consumed that night.

*

"Come on, let's go cross some thing's off this list."

Julie sidled up to the bar, sitting on a stool next to this guy who seemed to be there by himself.

"Hey."

He looked over at her and smiled, "Hey."

"My name's Julie."

"Frank, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Silence encompassed them. "Will you marry me Frank?"

Frank raised his eyebrows and looked at her as if she was speaking a different language, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Will you marry me?"

"Um I don't know you, honey. So, no. Thanks for the offer though." And he got up and walked away. Brynne and Delana stood a couple stools away from Julie and died laughing.

"Julie, I feel like you should have eased in to that a little, maybe got to know him a little bit or something, because that seemed creepy as fuck."

"Yes dear," Brynne giggled, "You successfully just came off as crazy as hell."

"Eh, he wasn't cute anyway, and I'm all set in the getting married department. I just wanted to check that one off my scavenger hunt. Get the hard ones out of the way first..."

"Oh dear God this is going to be a fun night..."

"It's your fault Brynne, you started this by creating this scavenger hunt..."

"I just copied and pasted from a website online Julie and I thought it was funny..."

"It is funny... look, there's Samantha over there getting that guy to give her his shirt." They looked where Julie was pointing, and sure enough Samantha Busch was across the bar sitting at a table talking to a guy who had just taken his shirt off and handed it to her. She met their eyes and held the shirt above her head triumphantly, causing Julie, Brynne and Delana to laugh again.

"We're going to be lucky if we don't get kicked out of here tonight."

Tara walked up behind the three of them and held a condom in front of Brynne's face, causing Brynne to shriek, "Get that damn thing out of my face Tara! Who knows where it's been!"

She shrugged, "I got it from that guy over there! Too bad I don't think he realizes that a) I'm not going home with him tonight and b) I'm not giving it back to him, so he better go buy himself some more or find a girl who lets him go in raw or else he won't be getting any tonight! But that's not my problem right now. I'm going to go see how many more of these I can get him to do before he realizes I'm not going to sleep with him."

Brynne watched as Tara walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, tilting her head to the side as if she actually cared about what he was talking about. She was putting up a good front to get him to think she actually gave two shits about him rambling. Out of nowhere he turned around and kneeled down a little bit and next thing they all knew, Tara had jumped up on his back and wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as he galloped around the bar with her on his back giving her a piggyback ride. She used her hand as if it were a fake whip and she whipped him to make him go faster, all the girls practically rolling on the floor laughing hysterically.

When they guy finally put Tara's feet back on the floor, she walked over to the group with a smirk on her face, "On that note, I think I need a drink..."

"What are you drinking tonight sweetheart?" the bartender asked her, "Because I think after all that entertainment the next round is on me!"

Tara looked at all the girls smirk still on her face, "There's another one checked off, babes."

*

As they were walking down the streets heading to their next (and last) stop of the night, Brynne grinned when she looked ahead of her and spotted a police officer up ahead. Not just any police officer either, a bald police officer!

"Ladies, don't look now, but I see a policeman up ahead!"

"Think he'll put me in handcuffs and take a selfie with me?" Julie asked.

Brynne shrugged, "I don't know, but we can ask. Explain to him it's your bachelorette party and maybe he'll play along with us!"

They made it to where the police officer was down the street and stopped in front of him with smiles on their faces. Officer Michaels is what his name plate said.

"Good evening ladies, what can I do for you tonight?"

"Well sir, see this is my friend here's bachelorette party – she's getting married in a few weeks and part of her party is we made a scavenger hunt up for her to complete tonight... one of her tasks is to take a selfie with a police officer... she was hoping to take it with you!"

He laughed and shook his head, "You would think I had never heard this request before, but actually you would be surprised to know you ladies are not the first one's to ask this question... let me guess, you want me to put the handcuffs on, right?"

"Oh my God, would you?" Julie screeched, "That would be an additional twenty points!"

"I'll put them on but very loosely and I'll take the picture with all of you ladies, on one condition..."

"Okay, what is it?" Delana asked.

"You stay out of trouble tonight and you tell those husbands and boyfriends of yours good luck this weekend..." They all exchanged glances and laughed, they had flown under the radar all night long, but to NASCAR fans some of them were pretty familiar faces and he was obviously a NASCAR fan.

"NASCAR fan are you Officer Michaels?" Julie asked.

"All my life. My daddy was the biggest Dale Earnhardt fan, I was raised loving NASCAR. I knew who you all were the minute you walked up to me."

"Are you going to the race this weekend?" Brynne asked.

"Nah, not this year. I didn't buy tickets because I didn't know if I would be able to make it due to work, but maybe next year! I try to go anytime I can make it..."

"Are you working on Sunday?"

"No actually I'm off, so I will be sitting home and watching it!"

"We'll do you one better," they all nodded, "We all want to invite you and your family to the track as guests of ours, pit passes and you can sit on one the guy's pit boxes for the race... enjoy the race a way you've never experienced it before. A thank you for the good you do in the area."

"Are you kidding me?" he asked.

They all shook their heads, "It's the least we could all do. And the guys would feel the same way."

"That would be so amazing. Thank you all so much."

"No thank you for putting your life on the line every day, and for putting Julie in handcuffs and letting us take a picture... we truly appreciate it."

Officer Michaels pulled his handcuffs out and handcuffed Julie's hands in front of her, putting her body in front of his and kneeling down a bit, so his tall frame would fit in the picture with the rest of the girls. Brynne zoomed in on Julie in handcuffs for the first picture and hit the button to take the picture. Then zoomed back out and laughed hysterically when she saw Delana in the background kissing Officer Michaels bald head – two for one there.

She sent the picture of Julie in handcuffs to Martin, laughing when she seen he had sent her a video of Junior and a couple other guys playing a yard game that involved them ringing rubber chickens necks and throwing them? What the hell? She just shook her head, wondering what the hell they were getting themselves in to.

The girls exchanged contact information with Officer Michaels, letting him know that once he got to the gate his pit passes and hard card would be waiting for him there under his name, and hoping they would see him on Sunday. Then they continued on their way to the club where they were going to finish out their night dancing and drinking.

Before they even made it there Brynne heard her phone ringing and rolled her eyes when she saw Martin calling. "Hello?"

"Baby? What did you girls do? Why was Julie in handcuffs?" In the background Brynne could heard Junior very drunkenly attempting to figure out what the hell was going on, but not making any sense.

"It was a joke Martin. We found a cop on the street and asked him to put Julie in handcuffs and take a picture. No worries, we don't need you to bail us all out... yet."

"Thank God... Junior is losing his mind over here... and yet it doesn't make any sense because he can't form any words together to make a single sentence that would make sense because he's too drunk to even talk."

"Oh God, are you guys done?"

"Yeah, I've already put all the guys who are staying at the hotel into cars and sent them to the hotel and I've only got Junior, Kevin, Kyle and Kurt to get back to their coach's at this point. Then I'll have everyone back with only minor complications."

"Okay, well we're about to go dancing and drinking. I love you."

He smiled, loving how free she was to throw those words around now. "I love you too Brynne, call me if you need anything okay?"

"Okay, I'll see you in a couple hours."

She turned her phone off and stuffed it back in her pocket before looking back up at her friends. "What?"

"I thought we said no men tonight?"

"Well they were freaking out because I sent them the picture of Julie in handcuffs. They thought we needed someone to come bail us out, so it was either answer him or he was probably going to show up out here looking for us. Besides, Junior was freaking out in the background and he sounded so drunk. Actually, all the other guys did. Martin sounded almost sober."

"Sucks for you Brynne," Julie said, "Now when you get drunk you can't go back and have crazy, wild drunk sex... it's literally the best sex ever. Better than break up and make up sex."

"Don't worry Jules, we're still in the 'honeymoon' phase of our rekindled relationship... everyday is like crazy, wild drunk sex..." Brynne grinned loving how free she felt, because there had been a day in her life where she would have never openly talked about her sex life with anyone – including her best friend. It just felt good to be so open and honest.

They all laughed. "I remember those days!" Brynne pulled out her phone.

You should start drinking when you get back to the coach, so you're drunk when I get back to the track

"I feel like that's what married life is going to be like for a while," Julie said, "Not that our sex life isn't crazy in the first place because damn, trust me it is... I'm excited to see where it can go from there."

Why do you want me to be drunk when you get back?

"Oh honey, the first six months are the greatest especially without any kids," Samantha Busch told Julie, putting her hand on her shoulder, "Whenever you have nothing to do you'll spend all your time in bed."

Because I'll be drunk too, silly boy

"Literally," Delana agreed, "Kevin and I got married during his first season in Cup after he took over in Dale's car after the accident during the 500, but we still managed to find plenty of time to spend in bed... we couldn't keep our hands off of each other."

I'm sorry if I'm being dense here Brynne, but I'm not catching on...

"I'm wondering if I shouldn't have even planned anything for our honeymoon... I mean I didn't make too many plans, but I did want to at least explore a little bit... but, if I find him this irresistible now, what's going to happen after the wedding when he's like really officially mine forever?"

I love you Martin but damn you are so dense sometimes lol I want to have crazy, wild drunk sex

"You'll be like animals after the wedding..." Brynne was so immersed in her text conversation with Martin she wasn't even paying attention to the real-life conversation happening around her. They could have been plotting her death and she would have never even known it.

Oh well shit, that's all you had to say... next time just tell me to be drunk and naked in bed waiting for you when you get home

Brynne rolled her eyes, he was so extra sometimes. "Did you get enough new lingerie from your shower?" Delana asked, "Because honestly you'll probably rarely wear regular clothing on your honeymoon." This caused all the girls to laugh.

Martin be drunk and naked in bed waiting for me when I get back to the track

They walked up to the club and were able to bypass the line outside the door and were escorted to the VIP section upstairs. They may not have the guys with them, but being married to them had benefits sometimes.

"I'm pretty sure I have enough for a different outfit each day..."

Samantha looked at Delana and smirked, "Twenty bucks says half of it is ripped in half by the time they come back from the honeymoon."

Yes ma'am

"Okay ladies let's go drink and dance!"

***

The bachelorette party scavenger hunt is real - my friends did that for my bachelorette party, it made things fun and interesting so I hope it was entertaining to you, too!